Cadillac brings subscription vehicle service BOOK to New York

Maybe you live in a large urban environment. This could mean parking is expensive and a hassle. It might also mean that you don't use a vehicle as often as those in other cities, so you don't want to deal with the extra work and fees that come along with owning a vehicle. Cadillac has just the plan for you. It's a new monthly car subscription service, and it's called BOOK.

The basics of the plan are simple. You pay a monthly fee and then you have access to any Platinum-level Cadillac vehicle in the fleet. You can book stuff from the V-Series family when you need a performance fix, or you can plop the kids into an Escalade for a nice weekend away in the mountains. When you want to swap machines, you schedule a day and time through the BOOK app and a white-glove wearing delivery person handles the vehicle exchange for you.

There are no mileage limits, no maintenance costs, and no lines at the DMV. There is, however, a pretty hefty bill at the end of each month as BOOK will cost you $1,500 every time the calendar rolls over.

At first glance, that price seems laughable. You get the "privilege" of not owning a car for the price of owning a very nice car. Dive deeper, though, and it's not as crazy as it sounds for someone with a few bucks who lives in a metro area like New York, which is where the initial rollout is taking place. A lease on a 2017 CT6 Platinum starts at around $1,000 per month. That will have mileage limits on it, as any lease does. For a few hundred per month more, you erase those limits and you now have what essentially amounts to a lease of the entire top-tier Cadillac fleet at your disposal.

If you wanted to lease an Escalade, a CT6, and an ATS-V, you'd be paying a heck of a lot more than $1,500 per month. So, if the program cost seems insane at first glance, look more closely and perhaps it's not as crazy as it sounds.